alison eastwood Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Alison Eastwood was in Telluride last week to promote her feature film directorial debut, Rails & Ties, which is now playing the Toronto International Film Festival. The film, about a railroad engineer who learns his wife is dying of cancer, just as he's facing an inquiry for his train hitting the car of a suicidal woman, stars Kevin Bacon and Marcia Gay Harden. Eastwood took time out of watching films at Telluride to sit down with Cinematical to talk about her film.

Cinematical: Let's talk about reaction to your film, how's it going so far?

Alison Eastwood: The first screening was yesterday afternoon, and then the one last night. This one just sold out. Which is great, but it also makes me really nervous.

Cinematical: But it's nice that it's getting that kind of word-of-mouth to draw crowds here.

AE: Oh, yeah. I'm so honored to have had the film accepted at Telluride, we're going to be playing some other fests, so this is a really nice send off. It's such a beautiful place, everyone here seems really into watching films, and they're really into them, it's just all about the films. We couldn't do better.

Cinematical: So let's talk about your film. I know you've acted quite a bit before this, this was your directorial debut. What made you want to take that leap from acting to directing.

AE: Well, in the past, you know, I've had people ask me, don't you want to be a director, be like your dad, that whole following in your father's footsteps thing. And I was already trying to make it as an actor without relying on the name. And it's hard, as an actor, I've worked in some good films with some good people, and I've worked in some crap, and I don't regret anything I did because everything I've done helped me make this film. Everything I've done as an actor, as a kid growing up on movie sets, watching my dad, it's all brought me to where I am right now.

But yeah, it's tough, being the daughter of someone who's so successful, so revered, and to kind of struggle along and find good projects, and also somewhere in there to make a living ... hence the crap (laughs). You have to be able to support yourself, you know. I never really thought, okay, I want to be a director. Obviously it's a great job, and I love the idea of storytelling, but I always thought, I don't know if I'd want to get into that – it's a lot of work!

I didn't do much on Thursday other than check in, get my press pass, and crash hard to catch up on sleep. Friday, though, brought the press meeting, after which we got to choose from one of two Patron screenings: The Band's Visit, which won the jury award at Cannes (I plan to catch it later during the fest) and Trikal: Past, Present, Future, a rarely seen film by Telluride Tribute honoree Shyam Benegal. I opted for the latter, figuring I might never get another chance to see it; also, it was described as a melodrama, and what's more fun that Indian melodrama? The film is interesting also because it's set in Goa, on India's west coast, a region that was under Portugese occupation for many years, and therefore has a culture very different from the rest of India; the film is in Hindi and Portugese with subtitles. In fact, Benegal mentioned when he was introducing the film that when it came out, the Indian press said, "Benegal has made a foreign film!"

The film is about a wealthy Goan family in 1961, around the time when India "liberated" the colony from 450 years of Portugese rule. The film thus, from a historical standpoint, shows a slice of unique Indian culture not often seen in film. True to what we'd heard of the film, it was indeed a melodrama, complete with an emphatic and occasionally oppressive musical score, fainting women, seduction, and ghosts of betrayed rebels haunting the house where they were murdered. The film won Best Director for Benegal at the 1986 National Film Awards in India, but today, it's rather hard to find, at least in a print of this quality. It was a rare chance to see a unique film, and I was glad I chose to hit it -- one of the joys of Telluride is discovering gems of films you may never see elsewhere.

More about Trikal and Opening Day, plus a photo gallery, after the jump ...

Now that she's conquered Playboy, former rebellious teen-turned-model-turned-actress Alison Eastwood has decided to follow in the footsteps of her father Clint and direct a film. Back in June, we told you how Eastwood would make her directorial debut with a film called Rails & Ties, though not much was known about it except for the fact that it opens up with a woman sitting in a car alongside her child. Oh, and I should also mention that said car is positioned on some railroad tracks, awaiting the next train to come by and, well, bye bye.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, it looks like Kevin Bacon and Marcia Gay Harden are in talks to star in the film, which we're told will revolve around a suicidal mother who'd like to check out via a horrific train accident ... and she's taking her 9 year-old son with her. Bacon will play the train engineer, with Harden chugging along as his wife. This territory is somewhat familiar to Bacon, as he recently made his feature directorial debut with a film called Loverboy, based off the book about a mother who obsesses over her son and, in the end ... let's just say the two are very similar. Production will begin early next year.

So, what do you think about the younger Eastwood's directing ambitions? Do you think she'll do a good job?

Following in the footsteps of her father, actress/singer-turned-director Alison Eastwood is set to make her directorial debut with the film Rails and Ties. As the daughter of relatively unknown actor-turned-director Clint Eastwood, Alison will be competing with the likes of Francis Ford Coppola's daughter, Sofia Coppola, for a chance to be crowned numero uno when it comes to famous Hollywood daughters who one day decide to become directors because, well, they can and because Daddy would be proud. (Actually, seeing as I don't know either one of these gals personally, that's a very unfair statement to make. Yeah. That was mean. I should delete it. But I'm too lazy.)

Pic, which is based on Micky Levy's original screenplay (yes, that's not a typo -- I really said 'original'), tells the interconnecting story of two families and their physical, emotional and psychological collision. If that description is a bit vague, I'll have you know the opening scene depicts a woman who parks her car on railroad tracks, while awaiting the next train to smash through her vehicle. Oh, and I should also note her 9-year-old son is seated beside her. Geez, talk about a depressing way to open a film -- I'm scarred just writing about it. If you're at all wondering whether or not Papa Clint will be involved, he is ... but only as producer. Rails and Ties begins production this fall.